The cost of assuming the life history of a host: acoustic startle in the parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rosen MJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2784737 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The cost of assuming the life history of a host: acoustic startle in the parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea.
Rosen M J MJ Levin E C EC Hoy R R RR
The Journal of experimental biology 20091201 Pt 24
In the obligatory reproductive dependence of a parasite on its host, the parasite must trade the benefit of 'outsourcing' functions like reproduction for the risk of assuming hazards associated with the host. In the present study, we report behavioral adaptations of a parasitic fly, Ormia ochracea, that resemble those of its cricket hosts. Ormia females home in on the male cricket's songs and deposit larvae, which burrow into the cricket, feed and emerge to pupate. Because male crickets call at ...[more]
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